WASHINGTON – Union membership in Rhode Island increased by 3,000 workers in 2008, according to data released today by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The bureau estimated that 78,000 of the state’s 471,000 workers were union members in 2008. That boosted the share of Rhode Island workers who belonged to a labor union to 16.5 percent last year, from 15 percent in 2007. (READ MORE)
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At the same time, the number of workers represented by a union (including those who were not union members) increased to 82,000 last year, from 78,000 in 2007, the BLS said. An estimated 17.4 percent of Rhode Island workers were represented by a union last year.
However, union membership in Rhode Island is still down compared with the beginning of this decade. In 2000, an estimated 84,000 of Rhode Island’s 470,000 workers were union members, according to the bureau. That year, 18 percent of the state’s work force belonged to a union and 18.7 percent of workers were represented by one.
Meanwhile, employment in the state has fallen to below its 2000 level. By the end of December, the number of jobs on non-farm payrolls had fallen to 468,800, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training reported last week. (READ MORE)
Nationwide, just over half of states experienced an increase in union membership in 2008, the BLS said, while in New England, every state but Vermont saw union membership rise last year.
Union members comprised 12.4 percent of the U.S. workers in 2008, the bureau said. Among states, New York had the highest rate (24.9 percent) while North Carolina had the lowest (3.5 percent).
The unionization rate nationwide was more than five times higher among government workers, 36.8 percent of whom were in unions, than among private-sector employees, just 7.6 percent of whom belonged to unions last year. The highest rate was among education, training and library workers, 38.7 percent of whom were union members.
Additional information, including the full national report, “Union Members in 2008,” is available from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics at www.bls.gov.
